Holiday painting challenge 2 "Peace"

The second word of the holiday painting challenge from Creative Catalyst was "Peace".

The image that immediately sprang to my mind was the white dove bearing an olive branch, a classic symbol of peace.

The greatest challenge with this one was designing the silhouette of a dove. I lettered peace on a piece of terra skin (still in love) with gold pigment infused gel medium, by stamp and stencil in various type faces and sizes, then layered on a few contrasting colours, ending with a thin layer of gesso. When the layers were dry I sanded through to the gold gel then cut out the silhouette. The olive leaves came from my terra skin scraps. Everything was assembled on a Payne's grey painted 5x7 canvas.

Hubby says it looks like a Christmas card. Since I actually created it with the intention of adding this design to my printed cards, I guess the design is successful, if a bit of a cop out :)